Very cool, any recipes or tips you could share?
I followed Sandor Katz's approach (start a ginger bug with a cup of water, a tablespoon of sugar, and some grated ginger). It usually takes me a day to get that bubbling away. My recipes are fairly general: ~10-12% sugar solution, with enough roselle (or ginger, or ginger/turmeric, or mint/lemon) to give sufficient flavour. Ginger I usually boil with the water to extract more flavour. Mint and roselle I just steep in the water after bringing it to a boil. I almost always add some lemon, as that always makes it taste better. I rarely measure these amounts (apart from the water & sugar), but tend to go heavy on ginger if I'm using that.
I need to get a new ginger bug rolling, had a batch not carbonate and it took the wind out of my sails.
Once I got my hands on some water kefir/tibicos I didn't use ginger bugs anymore (though I have since killed off my tibicos). They are faster and more stable, but rather voracious. I ended up starving them off, though the acid they created probably was a big part of that as well.
Another fan of ginger bug ginger beer - I love it, delicious and seems magical, like sourdough. I always make a strong, sweet ginger and lemon infusion (for a gallon pitcher 2 cups sugar, about 4 lemons and as much ginger as I can stand to grate) bring to a simmer, cool and then strain it into the pitcher, strain in the ginger bug, and top with cool water if needed to make a gallon. This way no solids, less chance of failure.
Also love to ferment grapefruit juice with ginger bug. For that - the juice of 8 grapefruit & 2 lemons, less sugar, water to top and strained ginger bug OR mixing grapefruit juice with finished ginger beer half and half, add simple syrup and let it sit out a day or two till fizzy. Such a complex flavor and not intoxicating.
Are you adding yeast, or doing it wild? The few times I've tried ginger beer, it always ends up with a thick, almost gelatinous microbial mat. One time I strained it out and it tasted ok, but feels like I'm doing something wrong.
I'm using the wild yeast from the ginger/turmeric. It only takes a day or so to get the "ginger bug" going, and I've never had any issues. Ginger is all local and unprocessed (I'm washing dirt off it), so maybe that makes a difference?
Fermentation